Sunday, June 14, 2015
Wellington pictures
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Auckland day 1 (11 June 2015)
Today I flew from Wellington to Auckland. The day went from pretty low key to pretty stressful with the switch from having fun and enjoying New Zealand to buckling down and working hard to get things done for research.
First off, I like how New Zealand does airport security. It is all done at the gate right before boarding. It is great and low stress, there is now undressing, no separating liquids, only removing laptops from bags. It was very nice and easy. The flight was a bit bumpy getting out of Wellington. I got airsick and had to keep my eyes closed for the rest of the flight. Luckily, I was at a window seat so there was nothing to look at anyway. It was a very quick flight which was also nice.
After collecting my bag from baggage claim, I found a taxi and headed into town. Auckland is much flatter than I was expecting and it is a busy sprawling city. I think I like Wellington much better. I had a hard time getting the taxi driver to understand where the flat I am staying at is. He ended up calling the lady I am renting from and she gave him the same directions as I did, but he still had a hard time believing. He tried to drop me off at a car parts dealership as he had the street number and the apartment number mixed up. I made him turn around and take me to correct place. I got the keys and checked in. It seems like a nice little place. It is close to the light rail station and and expressway so it is a bit noisy, but it will have to work. It does smell like cigarette smoke even though it is non smoking, I guess a previous tenant had smoked in or near the flat and they have not been able to get the smell out yet. It is also unheated, so hopefully I can stay warm this winter.
Once I got my stuff dropped off at the flat, I tried to get Auckland figured out. I was suppose to meet a post-doc at the campus to get some paper work filled out. I wanted to give the trains a try to I took the train behind my house to the station in downtown, Britomart. There I bought a train card and started heading towards the university. At least I thought I was headed towards the university. I got all mixed up with my directions and ended up going the wrong way on several occasions. After wandering around for about an hour, I finally made it to the city center campus! There I check my email to get in touch with the post doc. It turns out, I was on the wrong campus! No one told me that civil department and the place where I would be working was at a different campus than the main campus. I figured out where to go again, but it again took me several wrong turns and a bit of back tracking until I finally stumbled onto the right campus. Finally! I meet with the post-doc who had kindly waited for me and got the paper work filled out. The paper work is to get access to the building I will be in. Hopefully it get approved soon so that I can get some work done there instead of trying to get everything done remotely.
After the paper work, I headed home. The road in Auckland are so confusing. I missed to road to the train station and ended up just walking the rest of the way home, which wasn't too bad as I got to see what is around me. One thing that is really nice, is that campus I will be working at is actually a lot closer to where I am staying and will be easier and faster to get too. It should be just one stop on the train and a 15 minute walk.
I still need to find a grocery store and get stocked up on some food stuff. I think I will be eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches over the next couple of weeks as they are probably the easiest thing to do. Tomorrow I have an early start by meeting with my host researcher for breakfast around 6:30am. It should be interesting.
First off, I like how New Zealand does airport security. It is all done at the gate right before boarding. It is great and low stress, there is now undressing, no separating liquids, only removing laptops from bags. It was very nice and easy. The flight was a bit bumpy getting out of Wellington. I got airsick and had to keep my eyes closed for the rest of the flight. Luckily, I was at a window seat so there was nothing to look at anyway. It was a very quick flight which was also nice.
After collecting my bag from baggage claim, I found a taxi and headed into town. Auckland is much flatter than I was expecting and it is a busy sprawling city. I think I like Wellington much better. I had a hard time getting the taxi driver to understand where the flat I am staying at is. He ended up calling the lady I am renting from and she gave him the same directions as I did, but he still had a hard time believing. He tried to drop me off at a car parts dealership as he had the street number and the apartment number mixed up. I made him turn around and take me to correct place. I got the keys and checked in. It seems like a nice little place. It is close to the light rail station and and expressway so it is a bit noisy, but it will have to work. It does smell like cigarette smoke even though it is non smoking, I guess a previous tenant had smoked in or near the flat and they have not been able to get the smell out yet. It is also unheated, so hopefully I can stay warm this winter.
Once I got my stuff dropped off at the flat, I tried to get Auckland figured out. I was suppose to meet a post-doc at the campus to get some paper work filled out. I wanted to give the trains a try to I took the train behind my house to the station in downtown, Britomart. There I bought a train card and started heading towards the university. At least I thought I was headed towards the university. I got all mixed up with my directions and ended up going the wrong way on several occasions. After wandering around for about an hour, I finally made it to the city center campus! There I check my email to get in touch with the post doc. It turns out, I was on the wrong campus! No one told me that civil department and the place where I would be working was at a different campus than the main campus. I figured out where to go again, but it again took me several wrong turns and a bit of back tracking until I finally stumbled onto the right campus. Finally! I meet with the post-doc who had kindly waited for me and got the paper work filled out. The paper work is to get access to the building I will be in. Hopefully it get approved soon so that I can get some work done there instead of trying to get everything done remotely.
After the paper work, I headed home. The road in Auckland are so confusing. I missed to road to the train station and ended up just walking the rest of the way home, which wasn't too bad as I got to see what is around me. One thing that is really nice, is that campus I will be working at is actually a lot closer to where I am staying and will be easier and faster to get too. It should be just one stop on the train and a 15 minute walk.
I still need to find a grocery store and get stocked up on some food stuff. I think I will be eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches over the next couple of weeks as they are probably the easiest thing to do. Tomorrow I have an early start by meeting with my host researcher for breakfast around 6:30am. It should be interesting.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Orientation Day 2 - Wellington (10 June 2015)
The last day of orientation was very full of activities. While it was very busy, it was also very fun and exciting.
We started the day with a tour or parliament. It was very interesting to see how their government works and some of there differences between our government and the New Zealand government. New Zealand's government seems to be very open and welcoming of public participation. They really want the participation of the people. I think that it is really neat that they are a small enough country that it works out for them to have a small participatory government. I wish that our government was not so big and distant from the people. During the tour, they took us down to see the base isolators that they put into the government buildings. They are really excited about the base isolators and think their government buildings can withstand a Magnitude 10 earthquake. I am not so sure I believe that, but it nice to see that they consider earthquake planning to being important.
After Parliament, we went to the Royal Society where we each gave a very brief introduction to our research and what our plans for New Zealand were. Then we had lunch and headed off to see some of the fault lines in New Zealand. We stopped at three different locations to look at the faults in and around Wellington. There are dozens of faults that run either through the city or around the city. New Zealand has some interesting challenges in planning and preparing for a earthquake/tsunami event that could occur in the area.
After touring the faults, we stopped by the Te Papa Museum and looked around some. It was nice to go back and see some of the exhibits I missed and to spend more time at some of the exhibits. It is a huge museum with lots to see, it is kind of like all of the Smithsonian museums smashed into one.
To end the day, they took us out to dinner at a restaurant on an old tug boat. The food was good, but we were all exhausted by that time. I made it up until 10pm though, an new record for me, maybe I am finally adjusted to the time zone. I have pictures, but will have to wait to post them until I am in Auckland.
We started the day with a tour or parliament. It was very interesting to see how their government works and some of there differences between our government and the New Zealand government. New Zealand's government seems to be very open and welcoming of public participation. They really want the participation of the people. I think that it is really neat that they are a small enough country that it works out for them to have a small participatory government. I wish that our government was not so big and distant from the people. During the tour, they took us down to see the base isolators that they put into the government buildings. They are really excited about the base isolators and think their government buildings can withstand a Magnitude 10 earthquake. I am not so sure I believe that, but it nice to see that they consider earthquake planning to being important.
After Parliament, we went to the Royal Society where we each gave a very brief introduction to our research and what our plans for New Zealand were. Then we had lunch and headed off to see some of the fault lines in New Zealand. We stopped at three different locations to look at the faults in and around Wellington. There are dozens of faults that run either through the city or around the city. New Zealand has some interesting challenges in planning and preparing for a earthquake/tsunami event that could occur in the area.
After touring the faults, we stopped by the Te Papa Museum and looked around some. It was nice to go back and see some of the exhibits I missed and to spend more time at some of the exhibits. It is a huge museum with lots to see, it is kind of like all of the Smithsonian museums smashed into one.
To end the day, they took us out to dinner at a restaurant on an old tug boat. The food was good, but we were all exhausted by that time. I made it up until 10pm though, an new record for me, maybe I am finally adjusted to the time zone. I have pictures, but will have to wait to post them until I am in Auckland.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Orientation Day 1 - Wellington (9 June 2015)
Today was the first day of orientation. I don't have any pictures from today. We had a traditional Pipitea Marae Powhiri which is the traditional way to greet visitors in the Marae culture. It was interesting, and a bit different. There was lots of singing in Marae and lots of speaks in the Marae language. It seems as though in New Zealand things are done as much in Marae as they are in English, and I though I was going to an english speaking country! During the morning I was having a very difficult time with jet lag still. I felt like I was having an out of body experience as I was so tired, I hope I get over the jet lag soon.
We a delicious lunch that consisted of a white vegetable curry, chicken satay, and some pita sandwiches. After lunch we headed over to the bank to get our bank accounts finalized and our cards activated. It feels good to have access to money again with out worrying that using the credit card in New Zealand would flag it a stolen.
After I got my card set up I did a little bit of window shopping. I ended up buying a pair of thermal pants, I only brought one pair with me, and it the last few days are any indication, it is going to be cold here. It is also very windy, it makes the wind storm last February look like childs play but they just live with the wind here. Now I just need to find some fleece lined tights to wear with my skirt and I will be set.
Tonight we are had a reception at the US embassy with the Royal Society of New Zealand.The first part of the reception went really well. We were just standing and talking to people for the whole time. half way through I was exhausted and ran out of people to talk to. I have never been very good in these situations at finding new people to talk to so I just stood to the side and waited for it to be over. When it finally was, it was time to come back to the hotel and get ready for bed. I have been going to bed early here, it is hard to stay up late when the sun goes down before 5!
We a delicious lunch that consisted of a white vegetable curry, chicken satay, and some pita sandwiches. After lunch we headed over to the bank to get our bank accounts finalized and our cards activated. It feels good to have access to money again with out worrying that using the credit card in New Zealand would flag it a stolen.
After I got my card set up I did a little bit of window shopping. I ended up buying a pair of thermal pants, I only brought one pair with me, and it the last few days are any indication, it is going to be cold here. It is also very windy, it makes the wind storm last February look like childs play but they just live with the wind here. Now I just need to find some fleece lined tights to wear with my skirt and I will be set.
Tonight we are had a reception at the US embassy with the Royal Society of New Zealand.The first part of the reception went really well. We were just standing and talking to people for the whole time. half way through I was exhausted and ran out of people to talk to. I have never been very good in these situations at finding new people to talk to so I just stood to the side and waited for it to be over. When it finally was, it was time to come back to the hotel and get ready for bed. I have been going to bed early here, it is hard to stay up late when the sun goes down before 5!
Monday, June 8, 2015
A day in Wellington (8 Jun 2015)
I had today to myself to go out an explore Wellington. I wanted to stay in walking distance so that I could get everywhere without having to take a taxi or bus any where. I also wanted to be able to get back to the hotel before dark. I chose to hike Mount Victoria, which is hill close to downtown Wellington. It took me a little over an hour to get to the top from my hotel. The lookout point gave an excellent view of both the city and the Northern Mountains of the South Island. I also learned some very interesting geography for the region. The lower peninsula on the North Island use to be an island, but there was an earthquake in 1660 that pushed the land between the smaller island and the north island out of the water. This strip of land is very flat and is currently used as the airport.
After hiking to the top of Mount Victoria, I headed down via the 'Southern Walk' which took me to Oriental Bay. The sign at the top of Mount Victoria said 15 minutes, I doubted this, and I was correct, it is closer to 1hr. It was a very pretty walk though. Wellington does a good job at keeping its trails nice and provides many places for people to go walking throughout the city and the surrounding areas.
When I got to Oriental Bay, I decided it might be time to find something indoors to do. It is approaching winter here, so it was getting a bit chilly outside and the wind was picking up. I found the Te Papa museum in a brochure I had picked up at the hotel. Since it was free and on the way to the hotel, I decide to give it a try. It is a huge museum that felt very similar to the Smithsonian museums. I spent the rest of the day in the museum. They had several interesting exhibits and several nice place to just sit and relax.
Finally it was time to head back to the hotel. It is cold and windy here so I am very glad to have brought my winter clothes. Tomorrow is the first day of orientation so hopefully I can get rested tonight and be all ready for tomorrow.
After hiking to the top of Mount Victoria, I headed down via the 'Southern Walk' which took me to Oriental Bay. The sign at the top of Mount Victoria said 15 minutes, I doubted this, and I was correct, it is closer to 1hr. It was a very pretty walk though. Wellington does a good job at keeping its trails nice and provides many places for people to go walking throughout the city and the surrounding areas.
When I got to Oriental Bay, I decided it might be time to find something indoors to do. It is approaching winter here, so it was getting a bit chilly outside and the wind was picking up. I found the Te Papa museum in a brochure I had picked up at the hotel. Since it was free and on the way to the hotel, I decide to give it a try. It is a huge museum that felt very similar to the Smithsonian museums. I spent the rest of the day in the museum. They had several interesting exhibits and several nice place to just sit and relax.
Finally it was time to head back to the hotel. It is cold and windy here so I am very glad to have brought my winter clothes. Tomorrow is the first day of orientation so hopefully I can get rested tonight and be all ready for tomorrow.
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